Cruciator - Games of Light Act I: The Search
by AstonGryffynn
Summary: Queen had already wondered whether her brother could be close that summer. However, she didn't expect to find him in the middle of the War Zone London had become. In less than twenty minutes, thousands of years of Association Research fell into a pit, a real and fake King Arthur fought for the Heart of the United Kingdom, a new Campione was born... and two siblings reunited.
1. Chapter 1

**KINGDOM OF SPAIN - Empurdiabrava, Catalonia. July 8 - 2:38 Hours. **

* * *

They had been spending time in Empurdiabrava together when the news came. Every single thing they mentioned had chilled their blood deeply.

Thankfully, Mani and Sol were veterans in this regard. Manuel had gotten the car revved up almost instantly... never mind he was faster than the car could ever hope to be... running everywhere was tedious and undignified. Marisol was the kind who didn't mind, but he didn't like to let her charge headfirst into this sort of deal. It wasn't his way.

So after driving at nearly 250 KM/h for an hour or so, they reached Madrid in record time. When the Directory learned of the information they received, they wasted no time in making the information reach its intended recipients.

For one, the Lord Sovereign of the British Royal Arsenal had requested an extraction for all Cruciators. It seemed the Association would soon make their move after finding out the fate of the Sea of Estray branch and the fact Atlas had gone silent a month before. At least in the last case, it had not been their fault. Melqart... or Baal's shade, as they referred to, had awakened and he found the Mediterranean's fate was mostly acceptable, which meant the 'Dynamic Duo' that had delivered the message in the first place wouldn't have to cut short their escapade to strip a fake god of his powers.

The second one was that said deity was now making its way to London and given the fact they had handed out Divergent's Day heirlooms, there was a very high chance the world would soon have a new god-slayer among their ranks and the responsibility might even fall to Trastamara.

The third was that according to Ms Cameron, the younger brother of one of the Overbosses might be in London... and he might be a part of the Association.

Now that had been a major issue for them. This kind of news was never good at all.

So now Trastamara had to deploy a Sovereign to London on a recon mission. The idea was to run as many threads into what the hell was going on as possible. Afterwards, all it would take would be for the Knightscorp to contact the heads of Royal Arsenal and ready for the evacuation of British Cruciators off the Isles.

Easy plan this wasn't.

* * *

_Faro de La Moncloa, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain. _

The Directory's reunion had been convened around 2 in the morning. Worst of all, it had been on a non hectic weekday —a Tuesday to be precise— so every member of the 17 strong council had been sleeping, getting wasted (in what would be a legal flouting, at least for some, of drinking age laws) or doing something peaceful (nobody was, thankfully, in the middle of 'National Service' as the Knightscorp referred to). Naturally, a dimly lit meeting room full of grumpy young adults with enough power to turn Earth to breadcrumbs was the kind of thing even the _Guardia Civil_ had realized was not a good thing, so they had only mumbled something about following orders and escorted the Limo out of the Palace and into the Directory's main meeting hall. The _Cruciator's _personal army could take care of things from there.

It did not mean there weren't plenty of not-so-happy faces everywhere.

"Why were we woken up this early?!" a 16 year old boy yelled. I was dreaming of Shakira!

"Next time I am woken up, someone's head's going to end on a pike. First warning!" a 17 year old blonde girl responded furiously.

"Sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep, princess!" a second, redheaded girl with a bob cut exclaimed even more brashly, starting a heated verbal exchange with the blonde opposite her.

Soon, the room erupted into chaos as eight boys and eight girls started bickering against each other. Some summoned their weapons to their sides anticipating a fight, swords, scythes and polearms manifesting from thin air... until at last a voice seemed to cut through the argument.

_**"TIMEOUT!" **_the voice of an auburn haired sixteen year old voice roared, cutting through the loud yelling in the room and prompting everyone to go silent. His blue-flame eyes seemed to glare in every direction, and soon everyone was seating back down. For his part, the boy in question was just happy the staff that prepared the room beforehand had opted not to turn the lights on. The last thing they needed was bright lightning to irritate them more.

With the infighting over, the boy took a seat as well, lifting his Surface up and looking over at the briefing from the _Quintos_ that had only arrived. "So... I take it not many of you were briefed beforehand on why we're here, especially now..."

Murmurs spread far and wide among the other sixteen as they took a look at their tablets. Some frowned, others mumbled something to themselves and a few let their mouths drop open as they stared aghast at the briefing. One reaction, however, stood out in particular.

To the boy's right, a tall redhead with an Amazonian build and cerulean eyes hugged the tablet to her ample chest, tears streaming silently over her cheeks as she took in deep breaths through her nose "He's alive..." she whispered to herself —though given everyone's senses, not a word was lost to everyone else— "He really is alive... I..." she trailed off before looking to her left at the boy sitting next to her.

"Your Eminence! I ask for permission to deploy to Britain immediately!" she requested, standing up and making a salutatory gesture. The auburn haired sixteen year old, however, couldn't help but feel his heart skip a few beats.

"Queen..."

"Amaranth please! It's my brother we're talking about!"

"How can you be so sure?" the younger boy asked, crossing his arms as he stared up at her "We barely received information and the report is yet to be detailed... and you want to cross the Bay of Biscay in the dead of the night to go do _what_ exactly?"

"I am retrieving him of course!" the redhead said enthusiastically "I just need to comb London. I could check every nook and cranny of the central city by sunrise tomorrow if I-"

"No. _I_ could comb the whole city in around an hour or so if I really tried." the young boy interrupted "You could comb half the city by noon and very likely miss a few hints along the way. Don't try to argue with me because I am the resident Speedster Queen. Besides, are you really planning to fast travel to London like, in the middle of a magical Cuban Missile Crisis?"

For her part, Queen tried to come up with an argument that would allow her to do just that, but she knew she was jumping the gun. If the paper spoke of her brother, odds are he would be there for more than just a day. She'd have the whole week at least. She just needed to calm down. Her time would come. She would be able to rescue her baby brother... _Just be a little bit patient... _

Sighing, she plopped down on her chair, the long-sleeved white rashguard she wore as a pajama making her slumped figure look almost marble-like under the bluish, Tron: Legacy-esque lightning of the room. Happy to have addressed his girlfriend's plight (and convinced they would get to London by tomorrow afternoon if he could have his way), he turned to the rest of the Directory, who seemed to be doing all sorts of things from playing Metroid on a Nintendo Switch to Skyping their parents; Vivian —an 18 year old cheeky blonde guy who sat at the back end of the meeting table—, even seemed to have taken the interlude to run to the nearest Dunkin Donuts store and grab a takeout box before returning.

Amaranth glared at him with his head tilted. The older teen only looked innocently at the one helming the table before shrugging, then going back to devouring a chocolate filled donut.

"Right..." Amaranth commented, with everybody suddenly snapping back to attention "...that leaves the problem of directives 02 and 01... Specifically, the rise of a new God Slayer in London."

At this, the blonde girl who had been bickering with one of the girls before perked up and turned her head away from her phone to address everyone "Well, I might just have an answer to that, if you don't mind me going for a friend..."

"No shit Sherlock!" another blonde —this one sitting to the left of Amaranth— interrupted her "I know what you're talking about. We're not going to involve the idiot in all this!"

"Oh, c'mon Selene. You know Doni has more than what it takes to bring him down! We already know Alex Gascoigne is out of the country for now, so he won't be reaching on time for the awakening."

"I'd rather have Chelsea deal with it then..."

Amaranth coughed, trying to cut himself into the conversation.

"Selene, Amber's right. If we do not want another Campione running around, we're gonna have to rely on the only one we can summon at will. I do not fancy Chelsea's chances given what she's had to deal with these days. A _very_ tired King Arthur is not going to have the panache for god-slaying shenanigans and Queen is going to be busy finding out what Clock Tower is up to and where her brother is. As for me, I have to run to the West Country to take care of some businesses."

"Wait!" a man with jet black hair and an impeccable _Gakuran_ shouted from the midway across the table "Nobody said it had to be just you and your girlfriend plus someone else. Why not let more come?" he said before hearing the girl seating next to him —one with long black hair and blunt bangs— snort in amusement. "Well, pardon my concern Felicity."

"Yeah, Gino... we all know you just want to charge in to test your new toy..." she trailed off, smirking mischievously "'Sides, you only just got back from your 'I am my Past Self' phase! You aren't in any shape to go god-slaying."

"Well, you'd better know I left Patricia and Evan back in hell." Gino retorted, looking down on the table for a second. Amaranth sighted. This was getting out of hand.

"Sorry. I hate to interrupt your thoughts about your time as 'Cao Cao the mightiest hero' Gino, but we have to take into account that if more forces than necessary appear, we might have a firefight between our forces, what's left of the Mages' Association and the Witenagemot, with only the Ministry to call upon. After what happened a year and a half ago, I am not keen on relying on the British Ministry of Magic _at all_." He finished, with a new hand —this one from a silver haired boy with a long ponytail sitting opposite Gino— being raised to enter the roundtable.

"Yes Sydney?" the leader of the conversation asked.

"Is this why you're going to the West Country?" he started "Do you want to talk to him? To be honest, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Well, sleep nicely tonight since you'll do so aware of the fact that I am _not_ going to talk to Mr Chosen One. I am going to look for ex-General Graham and learn everything he has to tell me about why he defected us and what the hell it is he knows about _my_ cousin." Amaranth fired back, looking at Queen with a pained expression of sympathy "There are more people than just Queen here who've lost family."

At this, the rest of the room went silent before Amaranth sighed one last time, undocking the tablet from the table as he stood up.

"I will arrange a transport for tomorrow early in the morning. If we need help at some point, we will request assistance through Downing Street. I'd rather involve the government than the Ministry or the Arsenal. Alright? Fine. Session adjourned."

With those words, Amaranth proceeded right to the exit door, with Queen following right behind him as the rest of the teens started to stand up, undock their tablets and march in line behind their leader and hopefully back to the comfort of their suites.

* * *

For his part, Shirou wasn't having a pleasant dream.

He could see the same hell he had seen on _that_ fateful night. The bodies screaming loudly as they burned in a searing hell. However, he stood up, suddenly aware of who he was.

He was no longer the boy that had been alive that fateful night. Instead, he was himself. The raging fire could no longer scar his mind or scare him as easily as his younger self. For that, he was thankful. Sadly, the fire would still consume the lives of thousands... and if that wasn't enough, he couldn't move.

That was, in and on itself, a nightmare —unable to save those who needed his help when he was perfectly capable of—, but it wasn't what surprised him about the dream. He'd have dreams related to this night before, but none like the one he was having now.

In those dreams, it had always been people who had died, people he knew —Archer, Saber, Gilgamesh, Rin, Sakura, Kiritsugu... even another version of himself— and was close to or had _been_ close to. However, this time, he saw someone he had been seeing quite a few times in recent weeks. Someone he thought he'd never see in this hellish wasteland.

The red headed girl with the diamond colored eyes.

She looked different from how she had in his other dreams though. She was taller —probably older— and her hair was much longer, tied into a long, braided fishtail slung over her back. She stood before the figure of none other than the man he had taken to loathing the most —Archer— and was, surprisingly, as tall as he was. They both glared at each other in the midst of the fire and the screaming —not once exchanging words— before Archer traced Kanshou and Bakuya, tossed them off and summoned his bow, tracing and firing —in one swift motion—, Caladbolg.

The action in and on itself shocked Shirou. Neither him nor Archer would engage an enemy with that much power straight off the bat. However, the thing that shocked Shirou most was not the action in and on itself... but what happened afterwards.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Caladbolg headed towards the redhead... before she started walking towards Archer, who seemed to have been frozen in place as much as Shirou himself, and stretched her arm towards Caladbolg, her fingers caressing the sword's cylindrical shape before simply walking past it. Time then returned to normal... and Caladbolg went well past the former site of it's target setting off a conflagration somewhere in the scorching fields.

When Kanshou and Bakuya returned, she summoned a golden sword —simple in it's details and with a circular pommel, it stood out for one peculiar thing: it's round end— and casually swatted both to bits. She didn't just knock them off course. She literally tore them apart with a flick of the golden weapon she held.

It was then that Archer choose to make his move. He launched himself into the girl with the full ferocity of a Servant. Had he not seen her side-step Caladbolg when Archer attempted to dispatch her, he would've screamed at her to run. Instead, he watched with wide open eyes how the redhead and the white haired man clashed blades, with the girl not even seemed to be worked up by the Servant's strikes as she swiftly parried them with her sword, not even bothering using both hands.

Their dangerous dance kept getting more frenetic, however. Archer seemed to be getting more worked up as he lost three copies of the fabled Chinese Dao swords and after kicking the woman back a few meters, traced the sword that he had used against Gilgamesh.

_He traced Caliburn_.

However, before he could swing the sword in an arc towards the girl, the whole landscape was rocked by the echoing sound of a conflagration. The fires swarmed Archer, wreathing him in flames and causing the girl to hold an arm to her face to shield herself. When the flames were cleared, Shirou couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Where Archer had been, stood a humongous giant, not unlike Heracles, but with a body made of hundreds of blade ends. The outline of a vaguely human being could be seen given how the blades were arranged, but it was clear they were not enough to make the _thing_ look human.

The battle became a blur after that.

However, Shirou could recall the ferocity of the beast as it charged the woman, the girl leaping around, parrying charges and sliding in between the amorphous biped's hulking frame... and even being restrained by Enkidu —the chains of heaven— summoned by the power of Archerman and how she could incredibly tear them open with ease. She was definitely not a goddess, but the strength of those links should've been hard to tear given their origin. Instead, the girl took what little chain she could find scattered on the ground and used it to lasso the abomination, managing to pull it into it's knees as it roared and trashed like a bull in a rodeo. The girl too, yelled in defiance, roaring back at the beast's shriek...

The young Emiya woke up dry, but suddenly feeling out of breath. His heart raced, his throat ached and most importantly; his eyes were glassy with tears.

* * *

_**Important: So yeah, we're going there. I decided to write this story and go through with everything because this question (Shirou's biological origin and family) since it needs to be answered. We should always attempt to write about things that have not been addressed and this is one of the most important issues that no one in the Nasu Community has attempted to address. So I have decided to instead. Hopefully, this doesn't engender irrational spite. Like well, the other stories I've written. If some people don't like the idea that Shirou might feel attachment to his past, the door has a big sign with the word exit on it and is illuminated in case of a power outage. **_

_**As a disclaimer, the Nasuverse characters belong to Type-Moon and all associated companies. MGLN to Tsuzuki Masaki. RWBY belongs to RT and it's current writers. Campione is the property of Go Taketsuki, Percy Jackson is the brainchild of Rick Riordan and Synchronicity is solely my property. **_


	2. Chapter 2

The room was rather silent for this time of the morning. Normally, there'd be people cluttering the whole place.

Chelsea had taken to making it a habit to stop by the 5 Adelaide Street Starbucks joint every time she commuted to the Knightscorp HQ in Admiralty Arch. While she _did_ have a _suite_ for herself as did all British Sovereigns, she still preferred her cozy Kensington Home to the overly lavish, blinding luxury of the Lancaster Suites.

There were other reasons for the peculiar commute today though.

_To the: Mistress-Sovereign of the British Cruciators_

_Chelsea Elizabeth Vance Cameron._

_ 1 National Mall to Trafalgar Square, Greater London Metropolitan Area, England, United Kingdom_

_From: Lord-Sovereign of the Continental Cruciators (Trastamara-Central Madrid HQ) _

_Amaranth Fernando Graves Rose. _

_Madrid, Autonomous Community of Madrid, Kingdom of Spain_

_Dear Chelsea. _

_It is with great pleasure that I have received the news you've dispatched, _—_in close cooperation with Mr Alexander Gascoigne's Royal Arsenal_—_ the fact that we have been made aware of such a danger, however, has caused concern among the rank and file members of the Directory. Moreover, we have decided to dispatch an small elite team, and to make myself your acquaintance in private for the first time, when we visit London tomorrow. _

_However, due to the circumstances, I must ask that you send someone to scout the field ahead. This I ask not as head of the Western Cruciators, but as a fellow teen and liberal arts student and younger brother: we've received reports of the potential whereabouts of Syrus Mercer and we implore you to find as much as you can on whether the sightings have been trustworthy. Also, we are well aware of the existence of infiltrates within the Clock Tower and wish for them to be made aware of the demobilization of the organization so they may transfer to one of the authorized supernatural organization or one of our own groups. Especially poignant given we have two Cruciators serving in the Clock Tower Organization as well. _

_Thanks for reading Chelsea. _

_~Amaranth. _

So... that left her in a really annoying spot. It was also the reason for her commute.

As she closed the letter (which had thankfully been e-mailed to her phone —written letters were for the retarded _magi_ who had no clue as to how technology worked nor wished anything to do with it), she sighed and looked down at her near empty Chai Latte and the half eaten egg and ham bagel on her plastic tray, grabbing them and sliding them off the table and into the tray that was conveniently next to her table without standing up. Bringing up Telegram, she texted a message so fast it must've seemed like the swiping of a lockscreen.

_"Sonia, I need you to come here now." _the message read.

Message sent, Chelsea swiped the app aside and opening Safari, perused through the RT News feed on her iPhone's screen again, narrowing her eyes at the recent headlines:

_Japanese Urbanists still baffled at Tokyo Tower collapse._ _European power grid blackout "instant solution" source still unknown. _ _Large-scale heatwave hitting California ends abruptly. _ _Pillar of Fire at Valle de Los Caidos _— _sign of the End Times? _ _Roscosmos intercepts transmission from Outer Earth orbit... and it's not from us. _

To say problems assailed them all now was an understatement.

She was taken off her phone by the sound of tapping from the wood of her own table. Sonica was here.

"You called?"

Chelsea did not waste any time.

"Forge me a guest pass for today's CT lectures."

Sonica blinked in confusion, sitting down on the spare chair. "What? Miss, I am not sure that's-"

"Sonia, your job is to do what I say not question my decisions." Chelsea answered nonchalantly, eyes still adhered to the screen of her phone.

At this, the new arrival nodded in acknowledgement as she looked outside. Even though she couldn't see the figures clearly, she was well aware of who they might be.

"Miss Chelsea, I think we should move." Sonia urged, pulling on her hat as if trying to hide under it "Those people are with the Association..."

Chelsea sighed as she put her phone back into the small purse she was wearing and stood up.

"Fine then..." she said as she turned towards the window, glaring at the two figures lurking outside. The last thing she needed was to make herself a potential target. "One question though..."

"Yes?" Sonica asked, standing up as she fidgeted with her pendant. Chelsea stopped right in front of the exit, holding the pommel tightly as it began to glow.

"Do you know any place to have lunch close to the British Museum?"

Sonica sighed, relieved the question was far less serious. "There's a Five Guys two blocks away from there."

Chelsea smirked in response, prompting Sonica to do the same in return. The two held hands briefly as the taller girl led the hatted blonde through the door as she opened it.

When they slammed the glass shut from the other side, the glass blurred, and soon their blurred bodies vanished from view. There was no sign of either girl on the street.

* * *

**Clock Tower Department of Modern Magecraft, British Museum **— **Fields of Albion, London**

* * *

Waver Velvet was lost right now. If _lost_ even started to describe the feeling he was having right now.

After spending a whole night at the Director's flat (and still reeling from the fact he had met _the_ Director) and being made acquaintances with Jose Francisco Valuay, Waver and Jose had both been given a series of files on "The Secrets of the Association itself" by the Director. Now his world view was literally being demolished with a wrecking ball and being rebuilt sideways.

The cosmological model they'd been using... the Circuits they used for Magecraft (no wonder the guys at Atlas now thought they were idiots), The Wandering Sea's True Purpose (and why they didn't give one iota about what happened everywhere else), the changes the world would go... The second El Melloi was having trouble digesting all this info. Valuay himself was apparently aware of some of this but never shared anything with him because it didn't make any sense. Of course, when the Director told them to tell each other what they'd been looking for, something had clicked simultaneously in their heads.

They had been _kept_ separate. The reason was this. They would be able to find out things they weren't supposed to know.

So all along, the divisions that were known for being like night and day were kept from meeting each other lest things go downhill fast. The idea was that if the two met, then _this _would happen and they would have a really big issue in their hands.

Then there was the other detail — Shirou Emiya.

Now, Waver wasn't the kind of person to do CSI or even genealogy work, but what he had been told to do by the Director meant he had little choice. Eventually, he came to a conclusion that scared the living hell out of him, one tied to his recent world in Magical Cosmology. The shock had been bad enough to get him to fetch Emiya's Mentor, Rin Tohsaka, and tell _her_ about it since he was afraid of what would happen if the red headed boy learned that his family was alive and well and actively _looking_ for him.

The bad thing was that if they found him, Shirou could bid farewell to his time in the Clock Tower or the Mages Association as a whole. His recent life would become zero aside as he took from where he left off nearly 11 years before.

He didn't want the secret hidden forever, but knew young Tohsaka was a lot closer to him than the stoic mage himself was. The girl would probably tell him... in due time. After all, if something bad happened, he could always just go and tell the young man himself, but he wanted to believe he wouldn't have to resort to this.

He just hoped he wouldn't have to.

* * *

Shirou had been sleeping a little more recently.

It had been a week since his latest findings on his... old genealogical links. Ever since he found out about the woman who he _might_ have called, at some point, a mother —he had no way to be certain she was related to him after all— the unease of the initial discovery had surprisingly subsided. He had been attending his usual lectures, remedial lessons with Lord El-Melloi and some extra stuff from Rin. Saber, however... seemed unusually somber ever since her fight with the blonde swordsman she had met in Hyde Park. She had been eating less, speaking _even_ less than she normally did and insisted on staying in the flat most of the time. It worried him and Rin greatly, especially when they realized Saber was somehow taking in less than her usual mana allowance. When addressed, she'd answer with her head —a nod or otherwise for yes and no questions— or short, often one word answers. The boy didn't think Servants could undergo depression, but it sure seemed to be the case.

After cooking breakfast and packing his stuff up, both Shirou and Rin left together for the complex. The Underground ride was usually a chatty one, but now that they were there, they couldn't help but notice that they hadn't said anything to each other up until then. This really annoyed Shirou on the inside. He didn't like feeling like he was back to his pre Grail War days. However, when he turned to address Rin, he noticed she was looking at the roof of the carriage as if it would suddenly buckle and fall on their heads. It wasn't a very 'Tohsaka' thing to do as far as Shirou was concerned.

"Something wrong with the train?" he asked.

For her part, she didn't respond. Instead, he found her focusing more intently on the ground all of a sudden. However, he did hear her mumble some things.

"Hmm... If I... No, too risky... Maybe find them and... yeah, that sounds like it!" Rin didn't seem bothered by the fact her mumbling had grown to the level of normal speech. Instead, she suddenly turned to look at him with a wide smile on her face "Sorry, Shirou-kun. Anything you wished to tell me?"

"Rin... why were you spacing out? Is something the matter?" he started "I noticed you were silent this morning as well. What's bothering you?"

Rin blinked a couple times before laughing hysterically. _A sign she's hiding something_. The red-headed boy thought.

After two more stops, the two finally arrived at the British Museum, where they took the basement lift down to what was known as 'V level'. When the lift's door opened, they arrived at what the Association had dubbed the 'Spirit Field of Albion', the name given to the gargantuan underground cavern which housed the Clock Tower's office complex.

The whole place was the size of Heathrow Airport. The cavern was home to the corpse (or more accurately, the remains) of an ancient dragon that had been here for 1700 years. Apparently, it had gnawed trying to get to the 'Reverse Side of the World' as magi called it. To Shirou, the idea that myths existed in something like a parallel dimension struck him as awkward, but not as much the fact a dragon the size of the Houses of Parliament had tried to gnaw its way there by digging this place.

The complex itself was comparable to a business park in scope, featuring offices, boarding houses and the main buildings of each research branch. An small square was lined with shops selling magical wares and minor things like food, groceries and —miraculously in Shirou's opinion— an ATM machine. Most people who were a part of Clock Tower stayed within the confines of the complex instead of commuting. They were the exception to the norm.

"What's going on?" Rin asked no one in particular as she took off towards the Central Square, prompting a very confused Shirou to run after her.

"Wait, Tohsaka... what are... you..." the novice magus trailed off as he closed in on her and noticed the source of the commotion; a very large crowd had gathered around one of the message boards in the square and were looking at a brightly colored, large poster. The splash of color was so full of life it felt idiotically out of place in the dank, mostly quiet atmosphere of the place. Rin, however, elbowed her way in towards the poster and through the gathering of mostly young magi to make way and reach the poster closer so she could read it. Shirou trailed right behind her when he took in the description.

_Guest Lecturer Chelsea Cameron and her lecture on: Alternate Cosmological Models and Magical Cosmology; How Our Age and World Could Surprise Us and the Future. Today on the Main Exhibitions Hall of the Division of Modern Magecraft from 11:00 to 12:05. 'Come and learn why the world might be more wondrous than previously thought.' _

Though Shirou couldn't help but think about what the poster might have been trying to say —and the crowd didn't seem to find it strange as they discussed in hushed tones just who they were dealing with—, Rin had a far more conspicuous reaction.

Conspicuous being, she literally burst in hysterical laughter and pointed straight at the poster.

"...goodie! How could they?! This is the best joke in a while!" the Japanese girl laughed as she, clutching her side with her other arm, headed back towards the young Emiya, wiping a tear from her eye after she had calmed down a bit "Seriously, they even nailed it with the word 'wondrous'! They sounded like Mary Poppins!"

"Rin, I think that sign's for real..." Shirou said as he looked at the crowd, who seemed to now be looking for partners to go to the lecture. "There are plenty of people who apparently want to attend. Just look!" he continued, pointing at the still large gathering where the poster had been.

For her part, the Tohsaka heir didn't seem to take kindly to his assertion.

"Please... a 'Guest Lecturer' wants to lecture _us_ on the cosmology of the world? The world we've been studying before science became commonplace? What are they going to say? What will she mention that we haven't heard before?"

"I am just saying that..."

"Tsk!" the jewel magus silenced him right there. "No more talk of this. We have lectures, _real_ lectures, to attend to. I will be off to mine. Seriously, don't think about going to that... _thing_. Just go to your remedial lessons with Lord El-Melloi and we'll meet at lunchtime."

The girl for her part, did not wait for his response. She simply sighed as she walked away, leaving the redhead to his own devices.

* * *

**Royal Palace of Madrid - Pelagius Wing. **

* * *

"Ready sir! The self piloting system should take you there in under an hour." a Guardia Civil soldier said as he prepared the airstair leading into the modified Jump Jet.

"Thanks, we should be back soon. I will send for reinforcements if needed!" the tall, auburn haired boy —and leader of the Cruciators— yelled over the sound of the Harrier Jump Jet's idling engines as he tossed a laptop bag into the front cockpit, where the seat actually reclined backwards, leading to the cockpit becoming a two person cabin and space dedicated to copilot electronics instead having a foldable tray separating the two. "Where's Queen?"

As he boarded, his question was answered by a redhead dressed in a white banged up top and low rise jeans leaving one of the doors that emptied into the open courtyard. She was hauling a black satchel by the handle and had a tablet on her other arm. Instead of using the stairs, she gracefully leaped straight into the cabin, pressing a button next to her shoulder as the lid closed over their heads.

"Sorry for being late. I had to pick something from Selene before I left." the girl said as she held out her tablet and showed it to the guy. "See, this is the complexes' layout. It's the underground cavern where Albion was interred... or well, where his corpse was laid to waste after God decided to wring him and Ddraig dry after their little dispute went a little too far. Charlie's probably over here," the redhead continued as she pointed at an small square in the full screen sized floor plan of the underground complex. "This is the Director of Clock Tower's Office. Once we arrive, we go there, have a soiree with Charles and then convince him to send an evac order. The Director is very recluse in their eyes, so if he addresses Clock Tower's magi, then he'll probably have the complex vacated. Then we can just set off the Logical Warhead and they'll go the way of Atlas..."

The auburn haired boy let everything sink in as he noticed the jet starting to take off —completely vertically at first— before it started to move forward and soar over the skies of the capital of Spain.

"Queen... we aren't sure if we have to..."

"Amaranth, trust me. These guys are not like us. They don't play _nice_. They don't care about mankind's future! The moment they learn our mission involves undoing everything they've been perfecting for years, they will pounce... 'sides, they tried to attack the Crown City! That's not something we can just forgive, can we?"

At this, Amaranth sighed, fishing a Chupa Chups lolipop out of his baggy cargo pants and unwrapping the foil to stuff the thing in his mouth. He looked outside the window at the city from above. It was rapidly fading from view as they headed further north, and he couldn't help but have a bad feeling in his gut regarding what they were about to do. _A month ago, I was an Opera student in a field trip to Madrid. Now I am trying to save the world. Great... _

He took the lolipop out of his mouth and sighed. "Alright, I will help you with this. However, I will only do so if the British Cruciators don't mind. The last thing we need is an schism between Cruciator branches. Also... what about your brother?"

The redhead took her turn gazing downwards. The countryside underneath was full of peaks and valleys, —which made sense, since they were probably in Euskadi right now— which reflected her emotional state very well.

"I really hope he's alright. If he's truly in the Association, then each passing minute in that hell feeds off whatever lingering hope he must have left."

"To be a magus is to walk with death... so goes their saying, doesn't he..." Amaranth replied as he joined his partner and girlfriend in looking at the countryside as the mountains gave way to the Bay of Biscay and then open sea, "I really hope he hasn't completely been convinced by that. If a part of him still believes that magic can be beautiful and not just mean death, pain and decay, then we can rescue him."

The auburn haired youth's words gave the redhead hope, echoing in her ears. She looked up at him and couldn't help but smile when two pairs of eyes met —both the same cerulean shade, as blue as the ice of Antarctica— and the boy smiled back as the boy turned the tablet off and Queen stretched her hands over the table, sneaking them under his.

"As long as we're together..." the girl said, looking down at their hands, "We can save not just a few..."

"...and not just many" the boy offered in response, grinning.

"Together..." Queen said at last, "We can save..."

"_Everyone..."_ both said, speaking in unison.


	3. Annex: Chronology and series involved

Alright, many people have commented on what's happening. The truth is only I know that and it can be hard to convey what set the story up because what did this was essentially an original story going a particular way. In order to shed some light into the chronology of events, I've posted a Timeline at:

forums . spacebattles threads/games-of-light-dxd-original-hp-rr-campione-bleach-rwby-mgln-yotd-ff-beyond.734251/#post-55977028

Where you will be able to see how everything started and ties together. The timeline is not the whole story, but it will tell us how we got here in the first place. I will also add this as a way to highlight the fandoms involved because _this_ is not _just_ a Fate crossover, but a massive one which involves Fate on leg number one.

Fandoms in order of appearance:

1\. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, the Trials of Apollo and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. 2. Fate/stay night and Tsukihime. 3. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force (the last chronological installment). 4. High School DxD 5. Campione. 6. Harry Potter (post Deathly Hallows).

Now it's a little less confusing, but I will update the story to add tidbits of information from now on.


	4. Lore and Backstory: Beyond History

**RIGHT... This is an infodump chapter. It is _not_ mandatory reading because more will be clarified as we go, but if you want to get an idea of where we are when it comes to how the setting got the way it is, then it's recommended you read it. It's essentially the Ancient History of the world around 50,000+ years back, well into the Age of the Gods. It also allows me to show how the elements of the different franchises merged together and those who know the lore of their franchises well will be able to highlight which part belongs to which franchise. **

**Type-Moon and related IPs belong to Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Masaki Tsuzuki and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. Ancient Aliens, from which derivative lore is used, belongs to the History Channel. The Synchronicity Key belongs to David Wilcock. The Cruciator lore belongs to me... and the X-Men forever belong to Bryan Singer but that last one's neither here nor there. **

**So let's get on with it and the inevitable doubt and confusion train that comes from not starting a story from day one. **

* * *

People have always wondered about their origins...

Perhaps it's chance, perhaps curiosity... perhaps even the sense of belonging that the initial years of their existence caused. Nonetheless, mankind has always strived to understand itself, its place in the world, its history... and its _past_.

In an effort to understand the reason things were the way they were, at any point in time, man created the concept of _History_. Born from the collective memory of men, these events would be initially be carried in the minds and hearts of men, so that even if tragedy should befall civilization, its legacy would endure, and its mistakes would thus not be repeated. What had started as words... tales narrated around bonfires, —first by elders, then by parents, to their children— had soon evolved into stories, legendary epics of such great stature and scale that the men of later eras would see them as mere myth. However, what had happened in the distant past... the past where language was so different we cannot understand it anymore? The past where records weren't kept? The answer, which to this day sleeps within the very heart of men, is one even the far reaching powers of Wonder Working and Science cannot answer... but the answer lies within every descendant of a witness... every person whose ancestors' minds were burned into, with the long forgotten events of men from ages long past even by the god's standards residing in the collective past of those surviving bloodlines of a civilization long gone, living on in their heart's memory... their _Historic Memory_...

At the dawn of men —and well into the depths of an Ancient Prehistory we know nothing of—, laid the answers to one of our most primal questions...

_Does God exist?_

* * *

In the distant past... the gods we know about —each and every single one of them—, were like us. Just men. Humans. Mortals... Once upon a time, at least...

In those ages not recorded, a distantly long ago, mankind prospered across the glove. Civilizations emerged throughout our planet, flourishing under the support of two immensely powerful kingdoms. These two kingdoms —known as Mu, or the 'Kingdom of Darkness'— and Lemuria —or the 'Kingdom of Light'— were established by competing dynasties, both having been one and the same in the past. Both of these kingdoms laid claim to the vast majority of long Lost Continents today bearing their names.

One day, the peaceful prosperity of these two kingdoms was interrupted. Men were awed by a discovery that changed the course of Earth's history; the visit of alien civilizations, confirming that indeed men were not alone in the cosmos and life thrived elsewhere. That there were more like us.

One of these highly advanced civilizations —known as the Belkan Empire— established contact with the royalty of Mu... gifting them with the wisdom needed to create powerful weapons and wage war on unprecedented scales. The Lemurians, on the other hand, established contact with a larger, vaster civilization known as the Sylvanian Syndicate, which taught them how to bend the land and nature to their will and build to heights surpassing Earth's peaks. Through the wisdom, advancements and the manpower of both, mankind flourished in ways that used to be unthinkable. All in all, these four civilizations exchanged everything one could possibly imagine... goods, people, knowledge, technology... and yes, magic as well.

However, the Belkans were forceful and grew heavy handed, whereas Sylvanians were flighty and of a detached, disinterested spirit. When Belka's ham-fisted nature exhausted the people of Mu out, the former left —promising to return to conquer the world. The Sylvanians, on the other hand, stayed. However, their numbers dwindled as they found themselves fighting against the very empire that the people of Mu had refused.

With mounting casualties, corpses littered everywhere, the Earth was raided and plundered by Belka. The land itself was charred... as if it had been ravaged by a forest fire. In the sky above, a spectral silhouette shaped like a tree seemed to tower over the world —The Belkans made good on their promise, sending one of their many superweapons to lay waste to these civilizations... Desperately in the need of a united front, and supported by their collective wisdom, Mu and Lemuria joined forces. The people of Lemuria managed to combine their technology with the magic of the people of Mu and together were able to create what would go on to become the most powerful warrior-caste for thousands of years hence... It was the dawn of the gods.

Sourced from the best _Hidalgos, _—Warriors of Noble blood— the gods would go on to replace the rulers of the known world. They commanded an immense amount of offensive power and brought their full might to bear against the Cannibal Star sent by the invaders... but even this power would prove insufficient. The star was hungry, and it had a grim and savage banquet with the deities of the world.

In the end, it was the Lemurians who were able to forge a weapon powerful enough to eliminate the threat. A weapon that had to be forged _within_ the core of the Earth, embodying the very last stand of men. It was the first of many _Signatus_—ancient superweapons that would be lost to history forever— and one of the most famous. Enchanted by the wisest Warlocks and forged from fragments of the Earth's solid core, the blade's might exceeded that of the abominable beast. In the end, the beast was slain and our world spared.

To prevent any further such scenarios, the remaining gods pooled together their powers to heal the Earth and seal it off to any and all other threats. They used an extraordinarily powerful pillar —the second of the _Signatus_— to project a barrier that would seal the Solar System and also the Planet to any hostile intruders. This pillar, known today as the _Axis Mundi,_ would run from one end of the world through to the other, changing the tilt and curvature of our world.

Regardless... the pillar's price and toll was vast: it severed Earth's magic off from the rest of the mana everywhere. To circumvent the ensuing drought, the gods created Leylines as channels where mana could travel. These Leylines would work as recycling mechanisms, keeping the world and the gods supplied. However, as with old structures, they too would soon start to fail. Mana leaked off to space, far beyond our reach, heralding the looming demise of the Ancient's magic.

Regardless of the future it would bring, man rebuilt civilization, attempting to bring back the sense of normalcy that predated the 'Space Men's' arrival into our world. But even beneath this surface, considered a veneer of peace, tensions started to boil. The possession of the original Signatus by the Lemurians irked the Mu Nobility, who sought it for themselves. One day, a Nobleman from Mu managed to steal the mighty sword. In an attempt to protect the blade, he hid it in a tower alongside his eldest daughter, who would keep watch over it. However, the woman was rescued by a young warrior, draped in robes of black and green, hailing from Lemuria. The man would eventually toss the blade away into a river, never to be seen again.

A romance soon blossomed between the two... but it did not come to last. The man would one day fall ill and perish, ending their idyll. The woman refused to give in to despair, however. Instead, she went to the Domain of the Lemurian Royalty, where she met the King of Lemuria, the white god of light. The woman begged the white god to bring back her beloved from the grave... but heeding calls from minor gods —those who were in charge of overseeing the balance between life and death, and had in fact lived during an era where they were one and the same—, refused to bring the warrior back. He mentioned that there was wonder in death itself, and he wished for her to understand this.

The woman, —indignant towards this response— then traveled back home, to the abode of Mu's Royalty. Their King, —a god himself and the 'black brother' of the Lemurian King— gladly received her, thankful for the lavish praise heaped upon him by the woman. Happy to know he was being favored over his Lemurian peer, he granted her wish and brought the warrior back to life. However, the woman's progenitor, who had learned of her elopement and disapproved of her daughter's suitor, informed the god of light of her intentions. He rushed to stop his black peer from giving in to the woman's folly. The revived warrior was dispatched by the black god and they together reminded the woman that the dead deserved to rest.

Frustrated and enraged by this act of selfishness, the woman manipulated countless nobles and roused them in a Rebellion against the current Monarchs of both Kingdoms. The god-kings, brothers who had braved the fire of the Alien Incursion, realizing what she had done, quelled the Rebellion by spiriting away the millions of souls involved to a far-away world. They then bestowed immortality upon the woman, sending her to the new world as well to oversee the people she had led in rebellion and be their goddess. In doing this, her penance would show her the true value of mortality.

In the end, the woman was driven insane, saddled with a burden she neither asked nor wanted. The gods, —having also sealed off the new planet as a precaution— had also drained it of all mana to prevent magic from being used in an effort to return to our planet, instead replacing it with a solidified, petrified form of mana; a substance that was hardly useful beyond the confines of the world, but which could grow polluted and impure if stagnated, turning all wildlife into savage beasts and killing men and women alike. The woman attempted to rid herself of her curse by jumping into one such pool, convinced her immortality wouldn't suffice to keep her alive ...or so the myth went... but was instead corrupted beyond recognition, twisted by the same emotions that turned pacific animals into abominations. The first true Witch of both worlds had been born.

On Earth, minor gods —and the mortal populace as a whole— saw this as an abuse of power by the Brother Deities. To placate their indignation, they resurrected the Witch's lover, endowing the fallen warrior with the ability to jump from body to body within the confines of the New World, and tasked him with overseeing its growth. At the same time, he was entrusted with four artifacts that were to be used if he believed the world was ready to reconcile and rejoin the Earth. Finally, they gave solace to the descendants of the Witch, who had given birth to four daughters, and bestowed them with the power to use magic that the gods had taken away almost entirely from everyone else in the husk of a world they would have to live on.

Yet this was not enough to calm down the discontent and dissidence back on Earth. The masses soured further. Minor gods rebelled and clashed with each other. At last, gods and men alike took up arms and picked sides. Soon, the two gods leading both kingdoms blamed one another for the conflict and Mu and Lemuria ultimately clashed... The greatest war mankind would ever see had begun.

The war ravaged the world, bringing ruin to the land. As weapon after weapon and soldier after soldier marched towards the battlefield, the death toll rose over the course of nearly two hundred years, until finally, the unthinkable happened; Born from the arms race that the war spurred, the greatest weapon in the history of Earth saw action for the first and also last time. The Signatus' power, vastly exceeding that of the blade that had saved our world, wiped off both civilizations and leveled both continents. In the end, no more than 10,000 people survived...

Science had gotten this far into the past, and scientists know this as the Toba Catastrophe. To date, it remains the single most destructive event life on Earth has ever endured.

Once the dust had settled, the surviving gods, —who had seen to the protection of mortal men and women— met again for the first time since the war's end. The ruins of the Ancient City of Gobekli Tepe, today the oldest city known to exist, served to host this Summit, back when the settlement was still in its infancy. A Summit to decide on a new system to govern the world. The gods divided Earth into Spheres of Influence, defined by the people who dominated a region of the planet, and set forth a list of 'Ancient Laws' that were never to be broken, so as to prevent another cataclysm that would surely, this time, end all life on Earth. The War that had just taken place was thus baptized 'The Primeval War' and today is remembered only by the original Brothers Deities that led each of the two main kingdoms... those followers of the Slavic Pantheon —whether Old Believers or Rodnovers— revere them as Belobog and Chernobog —the god of light and the god of darkness— and the leading gods of the Slavic Pantheon.

That's where our story —the story that predated stories— ends.

The myths of our past would impact the future of civilization for ages to come. Regardless, this history would remain hidden for centuries. All wisdom, all memory and all records of the tale would vanish, turned to dust. Only one day, upon returning from a most ignominous quest, would one of the last remaining records... a treasure trove of the ages long gone... be found, retrieved and wielded once more. It would be the start of a new era.

In the hands of a champion of vast power, for he was able to unite those who would rather destroy each other, the wisdom contained upon this treasure would lead to the emergence of a new class of heroes. The Compact of Myths, as the relic was called, would soon lead the world towards a new era.

Soon, quickened by the Compact's power, which would resonate far and wide across the world, the hidden gifts of the heroic bloodlines of old would awaken. Those who could claim descent from Emperors, Kings, Pharaohs, knights, bandits and demigods even, would soon be able to harness upon these powers as if they had always had them. Furthermore, their power would grow over time, as these heroes now had knowledge and abilities their predecessors could only imagine. Soon... a new class of legends would emerge.

In the East, they became Bogatyrs... in the far reaches of the North and South, the Huntsmen.

In the Iberian Peninsula, where they had been born, they were known only by one name.

_Cruciators. _Today, they are only remembered by their translated name; as Crusaders. Created by the last vestige of the Prehistoric Era, these gifted children would rise to prominence among men for their abilities and discoveries, taking the world further beyond and writing down their names to be remembered for centuries to come.

_And even then, it would only be the start of our History. One thing is for certain, however... _

_**Our Story has just begun. **_

* * *

**Ending Notes: Hopefully I will not be lynched for trying to put everything together without showing favoritism. **


	5. Chapter 5

**SO it's been an eternity writing this chapter and _still_ I'm not one hundred percent satisfied with it. It is intended to shed some light into Shirou's future interactions and set up the first big battle for the next chapters. As a result, the length is royally bloated and I've tried with all my might to keep it short and trimmed, but that might not be the case. **

**Type-Moon and related IPs belong to Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Masaki Tsuzuki and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. Percy Jackson and all associated characters belong to Disney Hyperion and Rick Riordan. The Cruciator lore belongs to me... and the X-Men forever belong to Bryan Singer but that last one's neither here nor there.**

* * *

The call had arrived late in the morning.

When Annabeth and everyone had been taking their breakfast aboard the Argo II, the peace was interrupted by the unexpected caller. Apparently, he would be arriving in London in under three hours and had sent them a clear list of instructions. The last one involved meeting for a Celebratory Dinner at the Admiralty Arch, which was the British Co3 headquarters. That part was the one the Argo II crew had welcomed most... it was part one of the instructions that had put the blonde child of Athena on red alert:

_Part I: on the infiltration of the Clock Tower and retrieval of the stolen sword:_

_1\. Retrieve Andskoti from Magnus._

_down 'Saber' and her two masters and bind them._

_3\. Have Piper charmspeak Shirou Emiya for transfer to Co3 HQ. _

From what Annabeth had gathered from Jason's recon a few days ago, she knew what they were being asked was going to be nightmarish. A fortnight before, Jason had come back with numerous wounds that had thankfully not been lethal or wounded him significantly, but it still looked as if he had fought off an army of hellhounds... or like he did the time he insisted he could take on Clarisse, Percy and Frank at the same time. Whoever Jason had fought was clearly on par with a Titan. Jason himself said it was like fighting Krios all over again. That bode terribly for the idea of restraining this subject.

And the thing was... she knew the girl Jason had met in Hyde Park... and yes, it had been a girl, probably no older than 16... was the culprit behind his wounds _and_ their current target. Their caller had made it clear by following up the call with two pictures of the threesome they were to apprehend. Jason had pointed out right away the blonde girl in a conservative white and blue outfit was the same girl who attacked him. The fact that the pictures had their names scribbled underneath them only highlighted this fact further.

Now, to be specific, dispatching the girl would be possible _even_ if the three of them were adept combatants. They were 10 against three and they had been Telegram'd a list of weaknesses and possible strategies to take them down. If fighting a Titan + two Laestrygonians was doable for all of them, this group would be fairly easy to deal with.

_It was the 'restrain' part that worried her._

Mostly because Magnus was absent; he had stated he had errands back Valhalla, so he couldn't just tag along _yet_. Now, while she had been brought up to speed on his shenanigans, she also wondered where they would get _another_ Andskoti. Yes, she knew there was no way in the whole universe that _Fenrir_ was breaking those off, which meant if they had it, nothing would be able to untangle themselves from it... but, they didn't have it at all! All of it, if she recalled correctly, was now binding Fenrir/Fenris Wolf back in that island! Who was going to get more?

* * *

In the meantime, as a Sea Harrier soared above the English Channel, a couple were having a playful discussion in the heavily modded fighter jet, both sitting across from each other as they played 21 in a table separating the two. The redheaded girl's voice was curious when she spoke up. "Andskoti? Really?"

The reply from the auburn haired boy sitting across her was just as playful "Who do you think was the one that asked Junior for a favor?" he said as he added another card to the bunch. "I have the money and I am not Magnus... and he doesn't know we're cooperating. Of course he'd make another Andi for us!"

The girl toyed with the braided lumps of her long ponytail as she looked at the cards on the table, biting onto her lip in concentration, "...and how are Magnus and co. supposed to get to Westminster by 11 AM?"

"I told Hearth what Runes to use to do so... now... if he screws up, then it's over and we might as well roll over in our graves now... But I doubt he will... he rarely screws up in these sort of life or death situations..." he argued as he watch the girl place a card on the table and he smirked, placing a Jack into it. "21..." he concluded.

"Well, you win Amaranth, but don't you think you're gambling too much when it comes to... real life?"

Amaranth sighed as he picked up the cards, then looking towards the window as he saw the White Cliffs of Dover appear in the distance, "Maybe... But it's not like our planning ever panned out now did it Queen?"

Queen nodded, sighing in concession as she too turned to look below.

"...I just hope the gamble _I_ played was right..." she whispered wistfully before resting her hand on the edge of the window. Amaranth's own grabbed hers, prompting her to look back at him. His smile was earnest and full of the sunny hope that made her feel the world was no longer an obstacle for both. She really liked it when he smiled like that.

"I'm sure you're right..." he said, "...and I am sure you will see your brother again soon."

* * *

When Shirou arrived at the lecture hall, he didn't know what to expect.

The Fake Janitor had many reasons not to be there. Not only was the advert for this lecture unlike anything he had been taught about magecraft so far, but he had also kind of expected Rin to be more forceful on her insistence... then there was the fact that his innate curiosity was something even Rin's thinly veiled threats couldn't rein in, so he decided to just drop by and see why this woman had caused such an stir at the Central Plaza.

The room suddenly went silent. Shirou hadn't noticed, but through the main door came a woman in a business-like outfit.

The boy was initially confused. The woman had initially seemed familiar to him... only for her appearance to suddenly _not_ ring any bells in his head... and he couldn't remember why. It was as if a curse covered her, preventing her features from being _compared_ but not blurring them.

He knew this because he could see her and remember her perfectly: knee-length blonde hair, sharp looking emerald eyes behind rimless glasses, a confident but somewhat soft expression and visage... all together in a body that Shirou could only find _too tall_ or too well built. Slender, athletic and with nice but not overt curves. He could somewhat compare her to Rider... or Luvia... but when he tried to make another mental comparison, his mind suddenly failed at making the association. '_At least she seems to know her magecraft...'_ he thought.

"Very well then!" the woman started before taking something out of a bag too small for it. However, it was what came off the bag and not the size of the object itself, that impressed everyone.

The shiny contraption was a tablet. A bright white, Apple branded tablet.

Now, while Shirou wasn't the most tech savvy guy, the young magus wasn't stuck in the Middle Ages like other orthodox theumaturgy users were. He knew about the gadgets enough to recognize brands and had a phone of his own that he had bought to stay in contact with Taiga and Sakura. He had also found out that, surprisingly, Luvia used one as well... and Lord El-Melloi owned an older one 'just for making calls and nothing else'... However, most magi would never admit the _need _for a piece of newer technology, so the usage of a tablet for a conference struck him as unnaturally strange and jarring.

The woman cleared her throat while tapping a few times on the tablet and then pointing it at the empty wall behind her. Normally, there would be a whiteboard or the lecturer would use an spell for representing the visuals... instead, as she tapped one last time on the tablet, an azure beam flew from the tablet towards the wall and in the blink of an eye, the room was replaced by a void resembling outer space. Everyone briefly rose their voices and some stood from their chairs, which were no longer there... however, those who still sat seemed to be doing so in the air. Shirou himself stood up and then sat down once more before realizing the chair had been rendered invisible.

Alright, this was impressive. He hadn't expected everything to suddenly turn into a gigantic screen.

The room was brighter than before. Every star in the sky produced a dim glow. The woman then turned towards them.

"Well..." she started, "Before we start, let me just tell you... _this_ is what happens when you let technology and magecraft converge as they should." She then turned towards them again and nodded.

"Now, my name is Doctor Chelsea Elizabeth Cameron Brighton. I'm currently the Overboss of an Association of Mages known as 'The Admiralty' that is —I'm afraid—, not part of the Mages' Association." the girl declared before a small group of five seemed to sneer at this very thought. To be honest, Shirou understood their reasons perfectly well; for all its openness towards most magi, the Clock Tower was still a group run by nobles and very ancient families, so the classism that ran amok in the organization was present everywhere. This —naturally— meant that any organization operating beyond any of the three major Association branches was seen as 'lesser' in their eyes.

Not that he shared that view mind you, otherwise he wouldn't be here... and apparently he wasn't the only one...

The young magus actually noticed there were two different groups: one, a group of five, was comprised of magi dressed in a series of outfits that seemed drab, fairly conservative and rather old; standard magi outfits, if he ever saw them. The group seemed to be in their mid thirties save for the only two females —two young girls around his and Rin's age— that seemed to be glaring holes at the other group that had splintered away from them and was now huddled together.

Shirou then took note of the second group; they were all fairly young —perhaps even a year or two younger than him— and comprised of eight colorful characters —four boys and four girls— all of them dressed in, as he had noted before, _colorful,_ attention-calling outfits that seemed not only new, but also fairly expensive. Despite this, the eight seemed slightly uncomfortable rather than disdainful. One of the girls even had what he thought were earbuds plugged into her ears, shocking given how magi normally shunned technology. The group seemed to gravitate around the tallest two members: a young man with shining blue hair and spiky bangs who seemed to embrace a girl with hair dyed a warm shade of pink, cascading to her knees. Both had fairly calm expressions, but also bright blue eyes. All in all, it was clear they were either new magi or an inexperienced group, but unlike the older, more traditional gathering, they seemed fairly nice to look at and be with. Shirou didn't doubt which group he might choose to interact with once the lecture was done.

The cough of Chelsea brought everyone's attention back to the center of the room, where the vision was now focused on Earth, with the young Emiya noting how it spun.

"Right..." Chelsea started, "I take it all of you know the standard, Association Issued model of the world, right?"

The younger group didn't even budge —and in fact some even looked doubtful—, whereas the elder group immediately stepped forward. One of the men then looked at the rest —who nodded in agreement— before speaking on behalf of them all.

"Yes." the man —who sported shoulder length blond hair and spectacles— declared in a coarse voice befitting his early 40s appearance. "The Earth was created a significant time ago. It has gone through numerous eras including the Age of the Gods, the Age of Fairies and currently, the Age of Men. As the world transitioned into the Age of Men, creatures from the Age of the Gods and the Age of Fairies migrated to the Reverse Side of the World, a texture where they could live on. Textures are like layers of reality wrapped around the Planet, held in place by a powerful artifact. Sadly, that's where our knowledge of the situation ends."

Chelsea nodded. "That's right... now... who knows how Ancient History panned out according to men?" the blond girl asked as she turned towards the other group. The elder magi seemed to recoil at the very thought of going by the history of men, whereas a young girl with long blonde twin tails —that did remind him of Rin— stepped away from the group to answer.

"Yes. According to scientists-" she started before snickers coming from the other group interrupted her. She looked at the tallest guy in her group with an unnerved expression in her big blue eyes, which he replied with a firm nod that was acknowledged in kind before she continued.

"-according to scientists, mankind evolved thousands of years ago from the _Neanderthals_ and evolved into his more advanced cousin, Homo sapiens. Us. To Neanderthals, the new Human was an aberration. 'Peaceful cohabitation', if ever it existed, was short-lived." she paused before ending with a certain air of finality... and Shirou felt she was referring to more than what she was talking about when she glared back at the crowd of magi on the other side of the circle they were around. "Records show, without exception, that the arrival of a more _advanced_ species is _always_ followed by the immediate extinction of their less-evolved kin."

After saying that, the girl smirked at the apparent leader of the elder camp. Much to the redheads' surprise, he seemed mildly taken aback by the gesture. Shirou himself couldn't help but smile slightly.

The crowd erupted into chatter once more. However, as the vitriol started to simmer, it was put down by the sound of Chelsea's voice slicing through it like a hot knife through melted butter.

"Alright, alright!" she said before hoisting her tablet up again, then peering over its edge at both sides of the crowd. "What if I told you which one came first, the egg or the chicken?"

The redhead arched an eyebrow as the rest of the magi looked up.

"You see..." Chelsea started, "...in the place where I hail from, our cosmology has been able to finally sum up what happened when the Earth was born, up until today, and how that affects us now... and our future..."

Chelsea tapped her iPad a few times more and the room changed altogether... now they were standing in what looked like the depths of hell itself —a never ending landscape of fire and chaos that spread in all directions and seemed to have no end— and he immediately recognized the place they were in.

Earth... _Ancient_ Earth.

"Well... turns out that we have conducted analysis of samples throughout millennia... and we have finally devised a way to see through their 'eyes', as one might call them. At the Admiralty, we have access to something known as a 'Tachyonic Hypervisor'. This construct lets us see into the past from a neutral point of view. We confirmed it works when we saw into the Age of the Gods and could confirm everything worked as expected... so we were pleasantly surprised to find that we could go back all the way to the Hadean Eon... and we found out that Scientists were right. The Scientific Genesis of Earth is, objectively true. _Creationists beware!" _the blonde woman concluded before giggling slightly, then continued with her exposition, "...and this confirms another theory we had... that the laws of physics have always existed —even during the Age of the Gods— and they have simply been skipped in such scenarios due to the prevalence of faith in older times..."

The landscape around the group started to change all of a sudden, with Chelsea accompanying the change with her narration of events. "However, there was a period of Ancient Prehistory we knew nothing of... after all, where did the gods come from? Why did they make it seem as if they created the world when this was clearly a lie? How does magic fit in all of this? Well, I have the answer for you..." she trailed off, the landscape morphing into what seemed like a vaguely futuristic city like those Shirou had seen in Science Fiction movies, "...the answer is... the gods were like us... Once upon a time, at least..."

The room shifted once more as her tale started to move forward through time.

* * *

To Chelsea, Shirou and the group of new students all seemed to be in a daze. The elder magi, on the other hand, looked ready to bolt for the door. This didn't fit their world view the way they understood it, but the cat was out of the bag right now and the young crusader knew it would leave the bag on its own sooner or later. Nothing would change the fact that right now, she was doing all the people in the room a favor.

_Someone will have to explain to them, sooner or later, why their magecraft is going to stop working in around 36 hours from now... _the blonde Southampton girl thought. _After all, if what they said back at Spain is true, then the Axis is going to collapse in less than two days... _

"This is an insult to everything I represent!" shouted one of the shadier magi. Chelsea noted the man who had spoken the most: old by the rest's standards, clearly regretting entering the room and not leaving due to some outdated sense of duty to stick with what he had set on his platter. The man of dark hair and aged factions seemed visibly shaken by the story... or history, since that term was more accurate, and instead pointed his twisted index finger at her.

"Where did you procure this information from?" he asked, "Why should we take it? Who let you into this place?!" he continued, harping on about what Chelsea thought might've been two minutes and thirty eight seconds, before she sighed and cut him off. "Are you done?"

The man seemed to catch his tongue briefly. The guest lecturer didn't waste the chance to cool him down.

"What I said is what we've found through the use of something that might sound outlandish to you: magical technology... or magitek, for short. The result of attempting to use magic to answer science. We found what we did because no one else, at least on this planet, has attempted that or more accurately, those who didn't were written off as lunatics. Well, I'm not demanding you believe what I just said, but I do ask you start questioning more the story you're fed. You're not kids anymore. You're _mages!_" she stressed, using the term _she_ was familiar with instead of the _outdated_ word for the same thing. It was one of the reasons she had liked the young girl from what she had taken to calling 'Group B': because she had voiced what she herself thought despite being an Old World Magus.

The girl sighed once more before walking back to her desk and picking her laptop bag off the chair "You really should start coming to your own conclusions if my story doesn't suit you..." she finished off, walking towards the exit, "And as for who let me in? None other than the Head of the Clock Tower. Not just Ms Lorelei, but the _actual_ Leader in Charge... but seriously, consider my words... dogma doesn't suit anyone at all... and certainly not my group." With those last words, Chelsea left the room, causing a stir among the younger and the older group... and leaving a certain redheaded magus caught in the middle of the skirmish.

The room then turned into a war zone.

And a rather loud one at that.

* * *

This was not a good thing. Well, things weren't as bad as they sounded.

For one, Shirou was not involved in the free for all quagmire. For the other, it seemed to be mostly verbal... thankfully. Shirou had already endured many instances of Rin and Luvia quarreling over their usual research and had seen those warm up rather fast and turn into rather violent skirmishes.

Eventually, the discussion died down and he saw how the elder magi left the room in an orderly fashion. The younger group, however, remained inside with confused expressions on their faces. The eldest member turned around to ask the girl with the twintails something in a whisper, then turned towards Shirou himself.

"...Out of curiosity, do you believe anything Ms Cameron might have said?" he asked, stepping away from the group, with the young redhead noting how tall the man was.

"Kind of... actually..." he admitted. "I wasn't convinced at first but... to be honest, her tale sounds too elaborate to have been a concoction, not to mention... it actually _kind of_ makes sense."

Shirou wasn't lying when he said so. He genuinely had been listening and something within him felt right when he listened. More over, numerous things he had always wondered, like how magic could explain myths and science, seemed to have a concise answer. Granted, he wasn't one hundred percent convinced. He wasn't one hundred percent convinced by everything Rin said for one, so of course he wasn't going to just believe everything someone said right off the bat.

But it sounded coherent enough to think of it some more later on.

The blue haired young man sighed, "We really thought we were the only ones. Almost thought we were all crazy..." he said, turning around to the rest of the group. The girl from before nodded and greeted the Japanese boy from afar.

"It's kind of hard here if you're a first generation magus, so to speak..." she whispered, clearly sorrowful at the fact. The girl then wandered off towards one of the seats and made herself comfortable. Shirou himself was starting to feel some pain on his feet, so he too sat down in one of the nearby chairs. The man he was talking to followed suit.

"So I suppose introductions are in order..." the older man said, "I'm Dmitri. Dmitri Volkov. Pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Emiya... Shirou Emiya," the Japanese boy introduced himself, "...so I take it you're from Russia?"

"Technically, Belarus. I was born in Russia, but have been living in Belarus for a while now, learning magecraft from an old magus from Minsk..." he trailed off, looking at the group that had broken off into two smaller ones: the girls on one side and the guys on the other, "...that is kind of how we met... our teacher died just two weeks ago. He left me in charge since I was his most accomplished student. The thing is, he didn't seem convinced with our growth. The man essentially died while most of our training was halfway through."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No need for that," Dmitri assured him, fishing something out of the pocket of his navy blue coat and then extracting a packet of Tic-Tacs. "After all, we think he did a pretty nice job. He trained us in such a way that almost all of us already know well beyond the basics."

At this, Shirou nodded in understanding. He himself had asked Kiritsugu to make him into a magus and it turned out that he hadn't even taught him a single thing about how to be an actual one. Instead, he learned that his own Magic Circuits had essentially gone unused for who knows how long. It was a daunting thing to think that he had only just started to grasp the surface of what he was capable of.

After munching on one of the candies that Dmitri offered him, his partner, the pink haired woman, came strolling back into the room. She had left unseen before even Shirou's battle hardened eyes noticed... and returned with the same willowy grace her tall body gifted upon her.

"I've tracked down the Professor..." she said, her voice airy, husky and soothing. "She actually invited us visit her place. I'm not sure if you want to follow..."

Dmitri sighed, standing up and stretching his arms over his head. He then turned to Shirou, who was still sitting down and asked him if he would join them. However, the redhead was once more deep in thought, trying to make sense of what the guest lecturer had just said.

He certainly didn't expect the voice of Chelsea to suddenly interrupt his musings. "Are you trying to find the formula to Cold Fusion?" the blonde girl's voice echoed through the room, prompting Shirou to look up and see Chelsea had suddenly manifested in the desk she had been commandeering the whole time.

"W-where did you?"

"Relax..." she interrupted him, making a snapperjaws gesture with her hand. Dmitri just smiled at the surprised redhead and walked out of the room, letting the door close behind him and the young redheaded magi alone with their lecturer, who seemed to be busy holding what looked like an smartphone, scrolling through on-screen text. "I actually have better signal in here than I do outside in that cavern, can you believe it?"

The Japanese apprentice shook his head and went over to the Briton's desk, drew a nearby chair and sat next to Chelsea. Now that he was alone, he could notice more peculiarities regarding her appearance. Her hair was very long, tied into two hanging twin tails that cascaded from below her neck to her upper legs, just like the other blonde girl from Dmitri's group. She wore a black hoodie with Black Sabbath brands on the front and neck, a pendant in the shape of the Three Lions of England dangling from the latter. Both of her hands were covered by white fingerless gloves. However, perhaps the most striking feature of hers were her bright green eyes, filled with a silent optimism that seemed extraordinarily out of place in them for some reason the redhead couldn't put his finger on.

"I wanted to ask you a few things..." he said, leaning further towards the girl.

"Let me guess... you want to know if the story I told you all was true..." she answered dryly and with minor concern, "I have no reason to lie to any of you. It is what it is. I'm not going to be shoving it down anyone's gob anytime soon."

"It's... just..."

"That it sounds unrealistic? Unlikely? Too far out of what you've learned?"

"The last one. I mean, you know plenty of stuff. The Association has existed for..."

"2,117 years..." she interrupted him once more, "My kind has sourced this information from an entity whose age was, as of last year, 38,000 years old. For one, you'd think the Age of Men you speak of means the gods no longer exist or are powerless right? Well guess what? I have another boomer for you! They are alive and kicking and they are currently gearing up for the mother of all wars."

At this, Shirou's eyes turned the size of platters. "Whoa, what do you mean they are gearing for war?" he asked, before noticing Chelsea putting her phone away and then stuffing it into her bag.

"I mean that they are preparing to go on a mass manhunt for some things we need to save the world... because that system I spoke of? It's close to collapse. The only way to fix everything, and by everything I mean _everything_, is by finding those items and we need the gods to do so because we're not the only ones interested in them and the other party has no intention to use them to save our collective hides."

"So the gods are alive... and the world's nearing doomsday..." Shirou repeated to himself, his head hunching over as he let those words sink in. Nominally, he didn't believe Chelsea. _'It's just too much!' _the young magus had thought. However, things turning weird recently had made him a lot more open minded and flexible as to what he believed in and now he thought that perhaps if things were going to go royally wrong, it would be a good idea to let them go wrong with some preparations... so he had been taking some possibilities into account.

Naturally, this meant preparing for an apocalyptic scenario as well. He definitely didn't want to be caught with his pants down.

"You don't believe me, do you?" the girl asked once more, prompting the redheaded boy to sigh in his chair.

"I don't believe you _completely_, but I do feel things are going _weird,_" he confessed. "I can't explain it to you, but it's as if a part of me could feel danger looming and closing in."

At this, Chelsea took his hand and gave it a firm squeeze. The gesture almost made Shirou's brain short circuit as he realized he had received the gesture before... and that the skin felt the same. The warmth, the strength, the resolute nature of it... he had felt them before and he couldn't tell _where_.

"I'm pretty sure I could assuage your doubts..." she answered. "You should come to my actual office, where I can give you a nice rundown into what's going to be happening soon... but first..." she trailed off before fishing something out of her bag —car keys, belonging to an Aston Martin apparently— "...how about we have lunch. I am going to be meeting the rest of the new mages at my favorite place and also some friends who might be able to elaborate into what I just told you..."

"Where exactly are we going..." the redhead trailed off before asking, "...and will it be elegant?"

The blonde just giggled, standing up and walking towards the exit door, "No need to worry about dress code Shirou. Do you like Burgers?"

The redhead smiled at the question.

"Who doesn't like burgers?" he answered, walking after her and then falling into one peculiar issue...

Even though she had just called him Shirou, he had never introduced himself to her.

* * *

The world was a weird place.

For one, Rin Tohsaka never expected to be running down the busiest airport in Britain with a suitcase in tow and ashes on her face. Yet here she was. It really hurt her morale... especially given how everyone was looking at her.

"There she is! Get her!" a security guard shouted loudly as he found her among the crowd, pointing towards her for the rest of the Customs' officers to see her.

"Shit!" she hissed in Japanese, running even faster with some help from her augmentation spell as she headed straight for the gates. However, when she was nearing the glass doors, an alarm went off.

_"Great..." _she thought, feinting right and then going left, trying to find some opening between the crowds that had started to go haywire when the alarm went off.

"DON'T LET HER GET AWAY!" another officer said, his voice drawing closer to her. As the magus had expected, the crowds at the airport meant she wasn't able to use the augmentation to its fullest effect. The crowd also seemed to rush towards her rather than apart, which only served to slow her down even further.

In the end, however, it all seemed to be for naught, as she finally saw a pair of open sliding doors waiting for her.

_"YES!"_ she cried out mentally, running towards the door, bolting right before she collided with a gathering of old women huddling close to the open sliding doors and then veering to her right out of the overcrowded terminal and into the parking lot where she was ready to use the full extent of her speed.

...Or at least so she thought... until she ran into a tall figure that seemed to have the density of a brick wall, tumbling over and letting go of the suitcase.

* * *

**Right, so this is all done for now. Short recap: 1. Shirou goes to a Guest Lecture from an OC and learns what we already saw. 2. Shirou meets more novice, modernized magi like himself. 3. Shirou meets new friends not unlike him. 4. Old Guard and Younger Mages threaten to fight each other. 5. Shirou becomes friends with fellow Novice magi. 6. Shirou and Chelsea talk of their cosmic laws and finally. 7. Rin intercepts an important package in the airport and decides to take it with herselt and find out what it is before anyone else does... **

**As for those who are curious about Remnant? I must tell you now. They are different worlds, but the people of that world originated in ours. Hopefully there will be more time for clarify this later on. For now, I'm pushing this out of the door since it's the last slow chapter. **


	6. Chapter 6: Interlude

**WARNING: This chapter is an stopgap with some character information for the OC hero of this story and also expands upon lore we will be seeing later on. If you don't intend to read past this part of the story, you can skip this chapter. **

**Fandoms featured: High School DxD, Yona of the Dawn. **

* * *

...Dragons... those creatures who resembled snakes. Those vile monsters who had haunted his dreams since he turned 16.

He didn't understand what they meant, but he couldn't even think what might have caused them to emerge.

The boy himself had been fairly fearless; death, aging, the loss of loved ones, slasher flicks, scary looking underwater lifeforms, zombies, ghosts, demons... none of that had ever phased him when he was growing up. In fact, his parents had called him 'the dauntless child'. However, there had been one thing that had always been apprehensive. It wasn't snakes. Those were too thin and long. It wasn't Dinosaurs, who were too bulky and looked more like what they were now —big chickens—, to him. No, not even crocodiles or alligators.

It was dragons. Those mythical beasts that he had never been able to cope with.

For some reason, the child's most fearsome dreams were always similar: the boy alone in a world, burning down in an all consuming fire. A gargantuan red Wyrm, wrapped around the Mellon Center building, bearing down on him with vengeful eyes. An spectral black dragon, dying the sky black with his tail's shadowy trail, charging towards him and sinking him into the very depths of despair. A white European dragon, siphoning away his life like a vengeful vampire, taking away even his will to be... a white Asian dragon, calling in a hailstorm so fierce it froze him in a cold he had never felt before, the chill swallowing his very heart.

And a gargantuan red dragon, greater than the first, staring from the skies at the ruins beneath.

The strange thing was the last abomination. Whenever the boy had those dreams, the dragon started as a Western looking one. It was too vast and different to have been the other red dragon he had seen in his first few dreams. However, this dragon spoke to him, his voice initially male and smooth. His language casual and vulgar. This didn't really scare him as much. That voice and that Red Wyrm had not threatened him when the words addressed him... what troubled him was when his voice... and then his appearance, changed.

The dragon became sleeker, but also even longer. His shape changed from that of a Western abomination, —with a bulky body and wide wings— into an Asian form, with a long, sleek body shape and scales so bright and reflective they turned the body of the beast a Vermillion, rather than crimson shade of red. The dragon's voice, rich and masculine, changed into that of a young girl... and not a good voice. It was irritating, overly sweet and almost dissonant compared with the carnage that surrounded the child. The dragon's golden eyes turned a deep amethyst, almost making the monster seem human. That only served to make it even more unsettling.

_"Oh! Poor little firebird..." the new dragon had chirped, her tone mocking him as it stared from behind a wall of clouds, only its massive maw visible, "...how foolish of you, to think your impossible dream would come true..." _

The dragon briefly flickered back to its original form, somehow less unnerving and far easier to deal with.

_"C-chil... Child of Hispania... of... gryphons..." he stuttered out, something within him clearly threatening to take him back into the vicious form he had taken on before, "...find them... find him, Goch-" he spat out before turning female again. This time, the Vermillion basilisk simply breathed in, setting his whole world ablaze. _

The vision he'd have would change, always to the same scene: a peaceful looking Korean Manor. A group of young men, their hairs white, green, blonde and blue, looking like the most misfit of all groups... up until the arrival of another figure: a young, short girl with porcelain features. Her eyes were a rich violet color, one that the youth who dreamt knew all too well.

They were the eyes of the fearsome Dragonness who had belittled him earlier.

The girl's messy red hair, with some hair decorations to make its short length seem more lush, headed straight towards the crowd, holding a golden bowl with a strange liquid inside. It was clear and smelled of tree resin, making the youth giddy and confused as she walked towards the group. The men all took cups out and filled them with the viscous looking extract, taking an small sip each before turning towards the dreaming boy, who now realized he too, had a cup in his hands.

"Go on, drink it." The girl's voice asked calmly, a small smile that seemed _terribly_ out of place and out of touch with _his_ emotions present on her features. The dreaming youth could feel his features contort into an expression of disgust. He then violently flicked away the bowl. Less than a second transpired before he noticed blades slashing his throat from all directions, taking his head in the process.

* * *

"Amaranth! Wake up!" the voice of the woman bellowed loudly, almost imploring him. Her own thoughts seemed in disarray, almost as if the woman was capable of feeling his pain. "**AMARANTH!**"

The boy sprung up suddenly, his head mildly damp as he panted loudly and audibly. The girl, with her golden locks of hair and navy blue eyes scanned his expression carefully, her features obscured but also somewhat visible in the moon's white light. Her ivory fingers caressed Amaranth's face carefully, feeling how hot his skin was. He just blinked once, flicking away his own coppery locks, his own cerulean eyes staring back into the girls as he spoke.

"I- I saw the end times..." he breathlessly trailed off. The girl just sighed in relief as she proceeded to reassure the boy everything was good now.

"It was just a dream, Am-"

"No... It wasn't just..." he started, "...Selene, there's just something out there. It's linked to the golden dragon we saw two days ago. I can't tell you how I know it, but I feel there's something wrong with them... with dragons. They are all planning something and we have to stop them."

Selene just stared at him with scared eyes. She pressed her fingers, cool and soft on his skin, against his forehead.

"There was an earthquake only a few hours ago. Apparently, all over the world..." she said, "I think you deserved to know."

"How? A global earthquake?"

"Yes..." she continued, "seems the culprit is none other than the insanely gorgeous pretty boy in bed right now!"

Amaranth just sat there, confused. "What happened?"

"...since you seem to be scatterbrained right now... you briefly tapped into your power for real this time. You stopped the invasion of Madrid dead on its tracks with it. Seems as if their forces realized they were deader than dead and pulled back the moment they saw what they were up against. You still crushed them like termites. When we saw the light emerge from the Valley of the Fallen, we knew you had found the answer we were all hoping for. Also, the Earth quaked like crazy right then and there."

"What happened afterwards?"

"Well," the blonde smiled sheepishly. "We found you unconscious atop Space Tower. According to Artemis, that spike was the result of releasing your power for the first time. Something you could only do..."

"...because of Colada..." the boy finished her statement, looking around the dark room. These were his quarters. "So I was found unconscious and you brought me here?"

"Essentially..." Selene concluded before standing up and moving towards the door, "I'll go help the others clean up. We'll seek more info on the dragonkin and what they might be planning tomorrow, once you're well and rested."

"Selene?" Amaranth pleaded, his voice strained.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind... sleeping with me tonight?"

The blonde sighed again, closing her eyes as she contemplated keeping the boy company. "Sure thing..." she finally said.

As she walked towards the boy's bed, she took one pillow from the nearby drawer and some bed sheets, shedding her still dirty and beaten up jeans and staying in only her long sleeved, white gypsy blouse and pristine white thong. Amaranth smiled slightly, throwing aside his own bedsheets to reveal he was only using his favorite black shirt and his equally favored camo brief boxers. Contrary to what most who would watch the scene would be expecting, Selene rolled out the bedsheets and pillow and laid down on the floor, Amaranth rolling to her side. The blonde extended her arm, her fingers caressing his soft face before travelling down, grasping his hand right next to his stomach, where he mischievously rolled over, pinning both of their hands, still clasped together, beneath his abdomen.

"Just to know you won't go anywhere without me..." he chirped out mischievously, prompting a brief giggle from the blonde beneath.

"Buona Notte, il mio bello..." Selene whispered before closing her eyes.

"'night to you too, guapa!" Amaranth replied before letting his eyes drop and falling into a more peaceful sleep as well.

* * *

**Yep, this is where things might start getting weird. **


End file.
